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country where it was bitter cold, and the air was nipping and eager, should not have a suit of sables. I suppose it is well enough known, that the fur of sables is not black. JOHN.

"Nay then let the Devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables." When Johnson thus exclaims against the "implacable anger," as he calls it, of certain editors, he seems to forsake the cause in which he had engaged, to throw up his brief: in a word, to abandon the poet of nature, to the caprices of ignorance or tasteless temerity. In charging the great and learned commentator with having persecuted his fellows, one might almost be led to imagine, had not Johnson been a lexicographer, that he knew not precisely the meaning of the expression. If by using it, he would speak of an attack on the fame of others, he is manifestly wrong: for it is not in literature as in morals. In the latter case it is known that a man's good name may often be filched from him with impunity by bringing a censure against him in generals: and to do this when he is deceased, when no longer able to defeud himself, is no doubt base and infamous in the highest degree. But in the question of the former it is totally different. The man who publishes his opinions lays himself open to animadversion; nay, he may even be said to challenge attack. Thus the sentiments of either party will be laid before the world, and on their respective merits that world is left to decide:-the point is at issue, and Shakspeare must be given up to the wanton exercise of the injudicious corrector, or the corrector to him. The determination, I believe, will be easily made. But a succeeding Editor may by some, perhaps, be considered as merely hypercritical. If so, the more then must it redound to the honor of him whose idea in the matter has been controverted. He has passed the ordeal, and nothing more remains to be said or done.

1

But

Thus much in respect of critics and criticism. now to our author's text. The present reading "Nay, then let the devil wear, &c." is faulty, since the wearing of "sables" seems to follow as a consequence: not that "for" is really used as an illative particle; but I must insist that it might be easily mistaken for such: and as for the ermine of Hanmer, it must not be admitted, since it bears not the smallest resemblance to the word which is found in every copy of the play. With regard to Warburton's alteration it, likewise, is certainly wrong, for Hamlet, while dressed in his "inky coat," must not be made to say "the Devil may wear black before I will.” The matter is, that the passage is slightly corrupted: for "a suit" we must read "no suit," and consider "sables," as it is very generally taken, not for the fur of the master, but as a mourning dress. "Nay then let the Devil wear black, for I'll have no suit of sables!" i. e. no, mourning suit. By which Hamlet would have it thought for a moment that he means to throw off his then attire, which denoted sorrow, and to join in the pleasures of the court. B.

P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move,

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:

The instances.] The motives. JOHN.

"The instances." We should rather explain "instances by circumstances.

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motives that move. B.

We cannot well say, the

Ham. Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, with two Provencial roses on my raz'd shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

Provincial roses] Why provincial roses? Undoubtedly we should read, Provencial, or (with the French ç) Provençal. He means roses of Provence, a beautiful species of rose, and formerly much cultivated. WARTon.

-with two provincial roses on my rayed shoes.] When shoestrings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered in the form of a rose. in an old song:

"Gil-de-Roy was a bonny boy,

"Had roses tull his shoon."

Rayed shoes, are shoes braided in lines. JOHN.

So,

These roses are often mentioned by our ancient dramatic

writers.

So, in the Devil's Law-case, 1623:

"With over-blown roses to hide your gouty ancles."

Again, in the Roaring Girl, 1611: "

many handsome legs in silk stockings have villanous splay feet, for all their great roses."

The reading of the quartos is ruz'd shoes; that of the folio rac'd shoes. Probably the poet wrote raised shoes, i. e. shoes with high heels; such as, by adding to the stature, are supposed to increase the dignity of the player. STEEV.

"Provincial roses-raz'd shoes." The best reading (in speaking of players) appears to be "raised shoes" as proposed by Mr.Steevens. The raised shoe will be the buskin, or cothurnus, of the ancient stage. B.

a cry of players,] There is surely here no allusion to hounds (as Dr. Warburton supposes) whatever the origin of the term might have been. Cry means a troop or company in general, and is so used in Coriolanus:

66 You have made good work,

"You and your cry."

"A cry of players." "Cry" is contracted of Cryptic. It is of precisely the same import as mystery, and which was formerly much used to signify a trade, a calling. "Cry" is here a noun of number and applied to persons— that is to persons of any particular profession or class, and not to mankind in general. B.

Ham. For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here

A very, very-peacock.

-0 Damon dear,] Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allusion to the celebrated friendship between Dumon and Pythias, A play on this subject was written by Rich. Edwards, and published in 1582. STEEV.

A very, very-peacock.] This alludes to a fable of the birds choosing a king, instead of the eagle, a peacock. POPE. The old copies have it paiock, paicocke, and pajocke. I sub-. stitute paddock, as nearest to the traces of the corrupted reading. I have, as Mr. Pope says, been willing to substitute any thing in the place of his peacock. He thinks a fable alluded to, of the birds choosing a king; instead of the eagle, a peacock. I suppose, he must mean the fable of Barlandus, in which it, is said, the birds, being weary of their state of anarchy, moved for the setting up of a king; and the peacock was elected on account of his gay feathers. But, with submission, in this passage of our Shakspeare, there is not the least mention made of the eagle in antithesis to the peacock; and it must be by a very uncommon figure, that Jove himself stands in the place of his bird. I think, Hamlet is setting his father's and uncle's characters in contrast to each other and means to say, that by his father's death the state was stripped of a godlike monarch; and that now in his stead reigned the most despicable poisonous animal that could be; a mere paddock, or toad. PAD, bufo, rubeta major; a toad. This word, I take to be of Hamlet's own substituting. The verses, repeated, seem to be from some old ballad; in which, rhyme being necessary, I doubt not but the last verse ran thus:

A very, very- -ass. ТНЕОВ.

A peacock seems proverbial for a fool. Thus Gascoigne in his Weeds:

"A theefe, a cowarde, and a peacocke foole." FARM.

I believe paddock to be the true reading. In the last scene of this act, Hamlet, speaking of the king, uses the same expres

sion:

"Would from a paddock, from a bat, or gib,

"Such dear concernments hide?" MAL.

I am persuaded that the poet wrote, "a very, very,— meacock," i. e. a cowardly, effeminate fellow. B.

Ham. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.

— ventages -] The holes of a flute. JOHN.

-and thumb,-] The first quarto reads, with your fingers and the umber. This may probably be the ancient name for that piece of moveable brass at the end of a flute which is either raised or depressed by the finger. The word umber is used by Stowe the chronicler, who, describing a single combat between two knights, says, "he brast up his umber three times." Here, the umber means the visor of the helmet. STEEV.

"Ventages-and thumb." I would read thus-" Govern these ventages and the umbo with your fingers, and give it breath with your mouth." Umbo (Lat.) a knob, a button.

The piece of brass at the end of a flute might very well be called a button. B.

Ham. They fool me to the top of my bent.

They fool me to the top of my bent.] They compel me to play the fool, till I can endure to do it no longer. JOHN.

"They fool me," &c. "Fool me to the top of my bent," must mean, humor, or fall in with all my inclinations. B.

Ham. Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

I will speak daggers to her, but use none;

I will speak daggers to her.] A similar expression occurs. in the Return from Parnassus: "They are pestilent fellows, they speak nothing but bodkins.". It has been already observed, that a bodkin anciently signified a short dagger. STEEV.

"I will speak daggers to her." It should be observed that in the Return from Parnassus a quibble is intended. Bodkins (daggers); and bodekins, which word was common among the petty swearers of Shakspeare's time, and is used even now.

B.

King. And he to England shall along with you: The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so near us, as doth hourly grow Out of his lunes.

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